Making Beer in Plain Language

...home brew shop and found the process relatively simple, but the thought of making an all grain batch (extracting our own fermentable sugars from the grain rather than using the extracted syrup in a kit) seemed intimidating. Thankfully comrades Ben, Scott and Eddie showed us how to do an all grain batch a few weeks ago. Here, in plain language and crappy pictures is how it works. To the possible horror of beer aficionados, we’ll substitute plain En...

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Waxed Cloth Food Wrap (Made in a solar oven for bonus self-righteousness points)

...it rockets up past 200F pretty quickly even without the clips. So, at this time of year, working at midday, all I had to do was watch the time and temperature to make sure the oven didn’t get too hot. I put the tray in the oven, closed the lid (no clips, making the heating is less efficient on purpose) and waited about 10-15 minutes. The temp would quickly rise above 150F and the wax would dissolve, then I’d take it out before it got any hotter. F...

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So Much Poultry, So Little Time

.... -Someone needs to put together an urban version of the 4-H club to bring urban agriculture programs to the inner city. Maybe it’s already been done, but from what I’ve been told urban 4-H clubs are all about nutrition, science fairs, and maybe training guide dogs. Kids desperately need contact with nature and animals. Let’s grow some food! But we may need to hippify the uniforms a bit . . . -When the economy hits the skids people start thinking...

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De-Cluttering for DIYers, Homesteaders, Artists, Preppers, etc.

...from experience, I know I don’t need a hundred canning jars on hand at all time, much less their dented and rusty rings to be able to preserve food a couple of times a year. You might not really need that bin full of fabric scraps. But somehow this stuff does accumulate. Thin it out. Also, as we develop experience with any skill, we tend to find tools and techniques which work best for us, and we drop tools and techniques which don’t fit our style...

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